#nano tag

[cospinol]

my extremely generous but nonetheless rational outline, 19 days ago: finished sweetwater in 10k words. finished ibaramichi and playact in 5k. on the landship by 15k!

the most wretched draft to ever walk this earth, today:

[chaos-has-theories]

Spill the beans on Black Raven! Spill the beans! Spill the beans!

(in regards to this ask game)

You are going for the THROAT, my friend.

Black Raven is the working title for a truly old, deeply teenage angst inspired power fantasy I haven't actively worked on in quite some time. It's based on me and my older sibling. It came to me in a dream. It's so old that I wrote it in German, okay, which should tell you something about how deeply I cringe when I have to go back through the earliest parts.

But it's also... kind of cool?

Explanation of magic system and my fucked up birdgirl of a protagonist under the cut.

First of all, there's the magic system. Creating new spells is a lifetime effort: They're personal things, confined to the bearer. They're also weak, powered only by the emotions and dedications of one person. But - upon the bearer's death they do get passed on. That's when they get stronger.

Noble families have Spells that have been passed on through countless generations. They're powerful and unwieldy and highly regulated. Lesser families might have developed a spell of their own: they can develop spontaneously, but they rarely reach the kind of strength that is cultivated in a family with preparatory studies and passing-on ceremonies.

It is possible - if dangerous - to hold multiple spells at once. They interact with each other in unpredictable ways, and can rip away your humanity as easily as make you stronger. It is therefore highly illegal.

It is also possible - if difficult - to force someone to pass their Spell on to you. If you are the only person present at their death, well. Who else could it go to? It might not work as well as a proper ritual, but it does work.

And there is one surefire way to ensure that setup, isn't there? You just have the one who kills them.

Unsurprisingly, being a Spellripper is even more illegal than just holding multiple spells. Of course, those who make a career out of it tend to do both.

Second, there's my certified little freak of a protagonist. Care's parents died young and she was raised mainly by her sister; until Aria was offered a job for which she had to leave the country. We know Aria only agreed to it because it gave Care the opportunity to go to school. We also know that that did not work out as well as they thought.

Fast forward by ten to fifteen years. Care is a quiet student of thaumaturgy; known to be a commoner whose family came into money late in her life. She rents a room from an old lady outside of Campus, who has decided to give the clearly anxious girl as much family time as she possibly can. When that lady figures out that Care's missing sister is the famous singer Ariadne, she tries to get the sisters to reconnect.

The problems, in order, are these:

Aria feels incredibly guilty about having ever left Care behind, and vows to take her along this time.

Now she feels incredibly guilty about keeping secrets.

This would be because Aria's work as a singer is only a cover. She was actually scouted as a spy all those years ago.

Care is very well aware of this.

Aria doesn't know that Care knows about it though.

She also doesn't know that Care ran away from school as a mere teen, turning instead from petty thievery to serious burglary, to full on Spellripping.

Or that at some point throughout this, Care was actually caught by the city's government, and force pressed into working for them.

Meaning they are now opposite sides,

only one of them knows about it,

and both are being eaten alive by guilt.

And that's that!

[patron-saint-of-emesis]

me, gritting my teeth and crying: ITS OKAY FOR THE FIRST DRAFT TO BE BAD ITS OKAY FOR THE FIRST DRAFT TO BE BAD ITS OKA

[somehowmags]

the thing (1982) x tamagotchi

[shoujo--rei]

I meant it mostly violently. I enjoy choosing violence. -Nano

you know what fair enough choosing violence IS the fun option

[cospinol]

( ᵒ̴̶̷̥́ _ᵒ̴̶̷̣̥̀ )……

one day im going to make a glorious comeback and destroy charlottes wordcount. tragically this year i didnt even have the presence of mind to beat their starting wordcount at least once for tradition before they outpaced me by 3k words

[sarcophagid]

my super real comic that exists

[syn4k]

anyways it sucks that nano said that about ai generated writing but im broke so im not gonna be giving them money in either case.

my approach to this is going to be: in my creative writing class, one of our midterm grades is to compete in one of three writing related contests, one of which is NaNoWriMo. HOWEVER, since our class has a high percentage of disabled people (both physically and mentally) who are incredibly prone to burnout when it comes to participating in traditional NaNo, our teacher (also disabled so she Gets It) edited the challenge slightly this year to make it easier for us to participate.

instead of writing 40,000 words in one month, our goal is to write 10,000 words a month for four months, starting in August and ending with 40k at the end of November. this is much more manageable and realistic for us, it still provides a challenge, and it also means the participants write an entire novel in four months, which is still a big deal for obvious reasons especially considering the majority of the class are very much amateur writers.

i've adopted this much more relaxed model while writing salt & the sea and will probably continue to use it next year regardless of if our teacher keeps it in the rotation for our midterm grade or not. if traditional nano has been too exhausting/intimidating for you in previous years for whatever reason like it has been for me, you're welcome to join me in participating in this unofficial offshoot of it!

another thing: i am a fast writer. i write a lot and i write very quickly. however, due to burnout, depression, the time of year that NaNo happens in, and a couple other things, 40k words in one month is a goal that i simply cannot hit in any way without hurting myself a LOT right now and that's okay. Reaching a goal means nothing if you destroy yourself in the process of getting there. It's okay to make a huge challenge easier for yourself in order to accommodate for your own disabilities, workflow, etc. or even just so that you aren't put off trying in the first place!

I don't have a name yet for this edited NaNo challenge and it probably won't go anywhere which is okay but I'm thinking of referring to it as Mini NaNo, Mitosis NaNo, or something else that preferably emphasizes it's an unofficial offshoot of the challenge.

(my) monthly goals:

Start: Aug 1st (you can dust off an old draft or concept if you'd like)

August 31st: 10,000 words

September 30th: 20,000 words

October 31st: 30,000 words

November 30th: 40,000 words

Current word count as of Sep. 2nd (started this draft on May 30th, I know, I cheated a bit): ~19,000

wish me luck!

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES by T. Kingfisher.

Entering my Haunted House Era™, as part of my NaNo prep reading ignore how deep into October we are rn. I've really enjoyed Kingfisher's other horror (HOLLOW PLACES, my beloved!!), and I've heard good things about this one, so I'm excited to dive in!

[mechdyke]

what me? obsessed with @archie-sunshine's meter? its more likely than you think. ANYWAY uh i just. i didnt feel like drawing legs im sorry

[cospinol]

novel outline prepared …

[nebluus]

8 gal bowl

[patron-saint-of-emesis]

marty and otto’s dynamic in this fic is buckwild. marty is like, this new scientist is an asshole but if i push the right buttons i can train him to be a good enough person for me to fuck him. im going to enchant this man with my knowledge of OSHA and the flat cadence to my voice. and otto is like. this tiny woman scares me so fucking bad and i need to look SO cool around her. im going to see if being an asshole helps

theyre going to become better people eventually but rn the toxicity is off the charts and so fun to write

[walks-the-ages]

October 10th 2024:

Looking for anti-ai Nano alternatives?

Check out:

@yournovembernovel and @novella-november !

For those curious about what happened in September:

[callmehere-iwillappear]

a lil out of context doodle related to my current project <3